


Building Futures

by Sabene4511



Series: So Many Revelations [9]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, I watch too many home improvement shows, M/M, This kind of exploded, Vamp Mac (sort of), Vampire AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:14:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27222544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sabene4511/pseuds/Sabene4511
Summary: Mac was left in charge of Jack's money when he went after Kovacs. He um...used it.For the sake of timeline for my series, this story takes place in mid January 2020 (about a month after Jack returns from the Kovacs mission).
Relationships: Jack Dalton/Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Series: So Many Revelations [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1380847
Comments: 9
Kudos: 35





	Building Futures

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry it's been so long since I added to this story! One of my other hobbies sucked up all my focus for a while. 
> 
> This was originally going to be just a short fluff piece to check in with our boys while Jack's shoulder is still healing. It ended up over 13 pages long....I'm not even sure how. And I built the house in Sims so I could see it. I don't know what's wrong with me....
> 
> This is part of my Mac Vampire AU, but it's a vampire mythology that I created. Best to at least read Chapter 2 of 'He's A...Wait, What?" so you know what my vampires are like, but there's only a couple mentions of it in this one.
> 
> One final note, this series was dreamed up and outlined before Season 4 was aired. So Mac/Desi was never a thing, Codex isn't a thing, Phoenix never shut down and there is no Russ.

**Building Futures**

  
  


\-------------------------------------------

Jack grumbles as he paces around his apartment. He’s _bored_ and worried. His stupid shoulder is taking forever to heal. (It’s the normal amount of time, a little fast actually. But it feels like forever to him). Mac has continued going on missions with Desi while he heals and “relaxes”. Jack can even hear the quotation marks around the word in his head. This is _so not_ relaxing.

It was different when he was on the other side of the world chasing Kovacs. He’d known Mac was out on missions and potentially in danger. But this? Sitting in Mac’s living room watching him get the text from Matty, and then watching him walk out the door without him and waiting for him to come back (hopefully in one piece) is _so much worse_!

He can’t ask Mac to stop. That wouldn’t be fair. He already took a couple weeks off when Jack first returned in order to spend some time together, reconnecting after so much time apart. The fact that their romantic relationship had just kicked off was just an added bonus. He smiles a little impishly as he remembers those first few times together. Mac never again mentioned Jack’s inexperience with other men, but was endlessly patient with him. Always making sure he was comfortable with what they were doing.

They’d waited a month to tell the team they were together in case it didn’t work out. Riley had rolled her eyes and said “Well, duh.” The others had just nodded their heads and congratulated them, but there was no hint of surprise on any of their faces either. Mac’s dad had been the only sticking point there. He was clearly _not_ happy, but was doing a valiant job of trying to hide it. He didn’t congratulate them, but didn’t argue either. 

Jack knows Mac appreciates his dad’s effort and is still trying to fix their relationship, but it always seems to be a one step forward, two steps back. _Okay, enough about that pain in the ass_. Jack’s only going to get really pissed off if he keeps thinking about James MacGyver, and since Mac is due back any time now, he doesn’t want to be in a bad mood when he arrives.

Knowing how he worries, Matty had called to say the mission was completed successfully, everybody was fine and they’d be home in about two hours. That was about two hours ago, hence the pacing. Even though he’d talked to Mac on the phone from the jet, somehow he still can’t stop worrying until he sees Mac with his own eyes.

Finally, after more than two and a half hours, he hears a soft knock on the door. Jack approaches it slowly. It _should_ be Mac, but you can never really be sure...

“It’s me, Jack. Open up.”

...Unless someone does that. He reaches out, quickly unlocking it and swinging it wide for Mac to enter.

“There you are, man. I was fixin’ to call you. According to Matty, you should’ve been here a while ago.”

Mac smiles. “Come on, Jack. My detour only took like 20 minutes. 30 at most. I’m fine.” He leans in and gives Jack a leisurely kiss.

Jack hums happily as he returns the kiss before pulling back. “So what did you make me wait an extra 20 to 30 minutes for? I take it it has something to do with that folder?”

Mac looks down at the plain vanilla folder in his left hand. He looks back up at Jack and he looks...nervous? “I have a little bit of a confession to make, and I think it’s about time I came clean. Can we sit down?”

“Sit down? Sounds serious. Who’d you kill, bud?” He leads the way over to the sofa, deliberately sitting so Mac is on his good side.

“Very funny.” He says, smiling again. “It’s nowhere near that serious, it’s just...I did something without any kind of permission from you and I’m a little worried about how you’ll react.”

“So nobody’s hurt?”

“No, Jack, nobody’s hurt.”

  
  
“Then quit worrying, whatever it is, it’ll be fine.”

“We’ll see.” He hands Jack the folder.

Jack sets it on his lap and opens it. It looks like a bunch of legal documents. He’s trying to flip through them one-handed real quick to get the general idea. “It’s a house?”

Mac takes a deep breath. “Your house.”

“I don’t have a house, Mac.”

Mac grimaces slightly. “You do now.”

Jack’s head snaps to look at his partner so fast he’s momentarily dizzy. His eyes open as wide as they’ll go and his eyebrows have become one with his hairline. Quite a feat considering his hairline has receded a little (though he’ll deny it vehemently if asked). “You bought me a house?!!”

“Not really. You left me in charge of your finances when you left to go after Kovacs, so I...invested it.”

“In a house.”

“Technically it belongs to both of us. I split the investment with you....and it’s not just a house.” Mac reaches over and pulls several pictures from near the bottom of the stack of papers in the folder, handing them to Jack even more nervous than before.

Jack looks at the photos while Mac continues, quickly, like he doesn’t want to lose his nerve to tell him everything. “It’s a ranch. It’s on 28 acres just outside of Topanga State Park off the 27. It’s about 30 minutes from here. It needs _a lot_ of work. It was left abandoned for a long time and the roof was not in good shape. There were several small leaks and one really big one on one side, so there was a lot of water damage. I’ve already had the roof replaced along with all of the damaged or rotting supports. It was partially renovated in the 70’s so it was filled with asbestos tile and lead paint. All of which has already been professionally removed.

“They saved as much of the original hardwood floors as possible and there’s enough to do the entire ground floor with it, but upstairs and downstairs will need to be new. It also needed all new electrical and plumbing, new breaker box. It didn’t have air conditioning so I’ve had them put in an HVAC system. They already put in the new support beams in order to take out the walls between the kitchen, living room and dining room, so it’s all open concept. It’s basically just bare studs right now though.

“The barn was actually in pretty good shape. The roof really only needed a couple patches, but I had it completely redone anyway with the same metal roof as the house so it’d be safer. It still needs fresh paint and some other touch ups, but...”

“Wait, wait, wait. Slow down, darlin’. So, basically the house has been completely gutted, and you’ve only just started the remodel.”

Mac seems frozen now that Jack stopped him. “Yeah.”

“Okay. And why? I mean I know a lot of people remodel houses all the time and flip ‘em. I’m just wondering why you’re doing it.” Jack blinks a couple times. “Or I guess, why _we’re_ doing it.”

“It wasn’t _necessarily_ a flip.” He sighs. “I wasn’t sure what shape you’d be in when you got back, physically or mentally. I thought maybe you’d like a quiet place without having to go all the way to Texas. You came back a lot sooner than I thought you would though. I was planning to have it all done.”

Mac looks quickly up at Jack. “Don’t get me wrong! I’m _beyond_ happy that you’re back so soon. I just wasn’t really expecting it with how long it took to find Kovacs last time.”

Jack laughs. “I knew what you meant. Relax, man. Seriously, I’m not mad. About any of it. It’s actually pretty sweet. When do I get to see it?”

“You want to? Really?”

“Hell yeah, man. Apparently I paid for part of it, so I’d like to see what I bought.”

Mac bites his lip. “I can buy you out of your share if you…”

“Hey. Stop that. I said I’m not mad, dude. It actually sounds really cool. It _would_ be nice to have a quiet place to just hang out, away from the city, yet close enough to be able to go even just for the evening. That sounds really, _really_ good actually. Did they give an estimate for how long it was going to take?”

Mac visibly relaxes as Jack talks and smiles at the end. “The original estimate was about 1 month from now, but I had them stop when you came back, so there’s about 2 months worth of work left to do. The next step is for them to put up the sheetrock, start closing in all the walls and ceilings. But I thought, since you’re here, you might want some say in how it looks. If any of the plumbing and stuff needs to be moved, they’ll need those walls open. I can show you what the designer and I already planned out and you can change whatever you want. Or we can start over picking things out if you’d rather.”

“Oh, no. I don’t mind helpin’, but most of those kinds of details don’t matter to me, hoss. As long as you didn’t make everything bright pink, I’m sure whatever you already came up with is more than fine.” He shuffles through a few more pages. “I don’t see any plans in here. They somewhere else?”

“Uh, yeah. Sorry, I didn’t expect this to go so well. I thought you’d at least want to think it over.”  
  
Jack starts laughing. “You really kill me sometimes, you know that?” He shakes his head. “I trust you, Mac. If you think it’s a good idea, then it probably is. I know how well _you_ think things over before you act. Or was this place an impulse buy?”

“Well, no. I looked at like 20 places before I picked this one, but…” Jack’s renewed laughing cuts him off.

“Well, there you have it, man. You thought it over enough for both of us.”

Mac smiles. The smile that Jack loves best. The one that lights up the whole room and everyone around him in it’s glow. “So, you really don’t mind that I used your money to buy a major fixer upper?”

He can’t help but smile back. “Not at all. I’m sure by the time it’s done, it’ll be fantastic. Now, answer my question. When do I get to see it?”

Mac smiles again. “Whenever you want. Well, I mean, it’s too late today. There’s power, but they haven’t installed the lights yet and it’ll be dark before you get to see much, but we could go tomorrow. Matty gave me the day off.”

“Mmmm, my baby bought me a _house_ I get to go see. Now that’s what I call a date!”

Mac laughs softly. “Just remember, it’s not much to look at right now. I’m not sure it even really qualifies as a house at this point, it’s just a skeleton.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. You know, I think it’s gonna be fun watching it come together piece by piece.”

“I hope so, too.”

Jack closes the folder and puts it on the coffee table. “So, now that’s settled. What do you want to do for dinner?”

“What would you say to date night? Let’s go out.”

“Mm. I could go for Italian. You wanna try that new place over by your house?”

“Sounds nice. It’s kinda fancy, though. We’d have to dress up and I’ll need to take a shower.”

“Well, you take off and get ready then. I’ll grab a quick shower here and get ready, and I’ll meet you at your place. We’ll go from there.”

“Sounds like a plan.” They both stand, Jack grabs Mac and gives him a quick, dirty kiss and pulls back smirking.

“That’s for later.”

Mac sighs, giving Jack his own suggestive smile. “How am I supposed to get through a shower, thinking about that?”

Jack grins. “However you want to darlin’, as long as you’re thinkin’ of me.” He smacks Mac’s ass as he moves past him towards his own bathroom. “But hurry up, I’m hungry!”

Smiling, Mac rolls his eyes and heads for the door.

\---------------------------------------------------

Jack hums contentedly as he stretches himself awake. Rubbing sleep from his eyes, he blinks lazily as he looks around. He’s in Mac’s bed, but Mac isn’t, which is normal. Mac’s crazy vampire energy means he only needs like three hours of sleep. Sometimes Mac gets back into bed with him about the time he usually wakes so he doesn't wake up alone. Though not always since Jack’s told him enough times not to worry about it. Blinking a few more times, he notices it's really bright in the room, the sun has fully risen. He looks over at the clock and sits up with a start. It’s almost 11 o’clock!

“Geez.” Jack swings his legs over the side of the bed, looking on the floor for his clothes, only to find that Mac has picked them up and laid out fresh ones on the chair by his desk. Jack walks over smiling. _I don’t know what I ever did to deserve this guy, but damn, I’m one lucky man._

Once he’s finished dressing one-handed in the simple t-shirt and jeans, he pads barefoot out to the kitchen. Mac is sitting on the couch watching TV and turns when he hears Jack approach.

“Finally! You were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t have the heart to wake you, but I was starting to get worried.” 

Jack shakes his head as he pours himself a coffee. “Yeah, sorry man. Guess I still got some catchin’ up to do.” He puts the mug in the microwave to warm it back up.

“You don’t have to apologize, babe. You just don’t usually sleep this late even when you’re exhausted.” He turns off the TV and makes his way over.

“You’re tellin’ me. I don’t think I’ve slept this late since high school. Then again, _someone_ wore me out last night.” He says with a wink.

Mac smiles, looking a little guilty. “As long as you feel okay.” He wraps his arms around Jack’s neck pressing their foreheads together.

“Yup.” He wraps his good arm around Mac’s waist, pulling him close. “I musta just felt safe enough with you there to _really_ zonk out.”

He kisses Mac softly as the microwave beeps and Mac shyly dips his head at the compliment, blushing as he lets him go so he can retrieve and fix his coffee.

“You still want to see the ranch today?” Mac asks, leaning against the counter.

“Hell yeah. Whenever you want.”

“I called the designer and the contractor. They’re going to meet us there at two if that works. They’re looking forward to meeting you and getting your reactions, hearing your input.”

“Sounds good. Man, I can’t wait to see this place.”

“Great. We’ll swing by Phoenix on the way for my blood dose if you don’t mind. I was going to do it last night after the op and I forgot. I was thinking too hard about fessing up about the house.”

Jack chuckles. “You’re kind of ridiculous, man. You know that?”

“Yeah, yeah. Drink your coffee. There’s bagels in the bag on the counter, too, if you want.”

“Sweet.”

\---------------------------------------

He can’t seem to keep his leg from bouncing. He knows it’s making Mac nervous, but it just...won’t...stop. He’s practically dancing in his seat. He breaks Mac’s tension the way only he can. He suddenly leans towards Mac, putting his head on his shoulder and looking at him with wide eyes.

“Are we there yet?”

It works. Mac starts laughing. “Almost. Just a couple more minutes. We actually just reached the property line. All the land you can see on the right with the wooden fence? That’s ours.”

He goes back to bouncing in his seat. “This is beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. Look at those mountains, man. Damn, I can’t wait to see the house, too. I’m even more excited than I thought I’d be!”

“Gee, I hadn’t noticed.” Mac laughs again. “I didn’t expect you to be _this_ happy about it.”

Jack waves him off. “Oh, that’s just your pessimistic nature, darlin’. I left you in charge of my money, because I knew I could trust you with it. And look what you did! You bought us a _house_! I’ve never owned my own house before!”

“You’ll get your first look at it as we come around the corner here.”

Jack sits up straighter, craning his neck to see it as soon as absolutely possible. As the road curves around to the right they reach the top of a slight hill and a house comes into view. 

“Whoa! It’s bigger than I expected. How big is it exactly?”

“About 2800 square feet, not including the basement level. As it’s designed right now, it’s got three to four bedrooms. The master is upstairs with the attached bathroom, along with a spare room that can be used as an office, den, library, whatever. The ground floor has a full bathroom, and the other two bedrooms. Plus of course, the living room, kitchen and dining room. Downstairs is planned as a full gym, a media room, another full bathroom and some storage. There’s also a little bit of attic storage space.”

Mac pulls into the dirt driveway. The house is set back off the road by about 200 feet. Two other vehicles are pulled off to the right of the drive opposite what is clearly on its way to becoming a _very_ large garage.

“Damn, I thought everything was bigger in Texas! Is that the garage?”

“Five cars, and deep enough to fit the GTO with plenty of room to spare.”

“Holy shit, man. Should I even ask how much all this is costing?”

“Nope. You said you trusted me. Don’t stop now. Let‘s just say that we’re fine.”

“Okay. I’ll leave the budget to you then.” Looking back at the house he notices the railing on the right side of the second floor. “Looks like there’s a balcony up there!”

“Uh huh. It’s the entire top of the kitchen and goes all the way along the back of the house, too. There are doors to it from the side hallway and the master bedroom. There’s also a spiral staircase in the back that goes down to the deck that wraps three sides of the house.”

A man and a woman step out the front door of the house and wave as he and Mac get out of the Jeep. They’re the opposite of what Jack had expected and he chides himself for falling into stereotypes. The woman is clearly the contractor, wearing a simple jeans and t-shirt outfit, her red hair piled high on her head in a messy bun, tool belt slung around her waist. The man next to her is wearing black dress slacks and a fashion print shirt in varying shades of green and he’s carrying a tablet.

Mac walks up to them with a warm smile, giving each of them a brief hug before stepping back to Jack’s side.

“Lori, Mitch, this is Jack.” Jack shakes their hands as Mac flips the introduction. “Jack, Lori is our general contractor, and she’s awesome. Mitch is our designer. He’s been a lifesaver, because I suck at figuring out what goes together.”

Jack chuckles at that. “Yeah, I think I’d have the same problem. I know what I like, but knowing what will look good when you put it next to something else?” He grimaces. “I shudder to think of the clashing that would result.”

“That’s why I’m here.” Mitch says with a smile.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Jack. Sorry, we didn’t get to finish before you got back, but I’m glad you made it back in one piece. Well, mostly.” She finishes with a wave at his shoulder.

“Ah, this is no big deal. Just a bit of a misunderstanding. It’s healing up just fine.”

Mitch’s eyes widen. “A misunderstanding?”

“Yup, we wanted to kill his boss. He was of the opinion that was a bad thing.”

Mac felt it best to interrupt before Jack scares someone. “Shall we head inside and show Jack what we had in mind?”

Lori seems to share Mac’s concern and responds quickly. “Yes! We can’t wait to hear what you think, Jack.”

Mitch moves to go with them after another somewhat leery look at Jack.

Jack leans close to Mac, whispering as the other two pull slightly ahead. “Where did you tell them I was?”

Mac laughs. “On a business trip.” He pauses for a breath between laughs. “We’re going to have to tell them a little more.”

Jack looks at him in shock. “Gee, you think?! They probably think I’m one of _Murdoc’s_ coworkers now!”

Mac cracks up at that, drawing the attention of their audience. He manages to get himself under control and look a little sheepish as the others turn around. “Sorry, we just realized what that must have sounded like to you both. Jack isn’t a hitman or anything, he’s Special Forces. US Army.”

A look of profound relief and understanding crosses both of their faces, but it’s Mitch that actually speaks. “Oh, thank god. I _was_ starting to wonder, but it didn’t fit with the tiny crumbs of information we’ve managed to weedle out of Mac about you. He’s been a bit...tight lipped. Now I understand. And it also explains a couple of Mr. MacGyver’s more _unusual_ requests.”

“Unusual? Like what?” Jack asks.

“Like bullet proof glass on the windows and most every room having at least two exits so there are no dead ends, including a couple of hidden doors.” Lori says with a smile.

Jack laughs. “Seriously?! Dude, that’s awesome!” He claps a hand on Mac’s far shoulder, pulling him in close and leaving his arm draped over him.

Mac smiles, putting an arm around Jack’s waist in return. “I thought you’d like that.”

With a quick kiss to Mac’s temple that has the blonde blushing, he turns to Lori and Mitch. “Okay, now that we all understand that I’m not a deranged psychopath, can we please, please, _please_ show me the house if I promise not to shoot anyone?”

Mitch and Lori join in the laugh this time as they all file inside.

Once in, Jack whistles in awe. “Wow. Look at the size of this place. I thought it looked big on the outside!”

“It’ll look a bit smaller once there are walls up and we put in the rooms off the back.” Lori says. “But there’s quite a bit of space here.”

Jack looks up...and up...and up. “The living room is two stories?!”

Lori smiles. “Yup. Cathedral ceiling with a balcony on the hallway all the way around so you’ll be able to see the entire living/dining room area from upstairs. There will also be a door to the outdoor balcony.”

They move through the ground floor with Lori explaining where everything is going and Mitch following up with pictures of the working choices for countertops, cabinets, tiles, and furniture. Jack notices that they seem to have fittingly kept to the farm house style for the most part. A large wood-burning fireplace is being added to the living area.

Jack sees a large pile of floor boards in what he _thinks_ is the dining room. “Oh, man. This is the hardwood?! It’s gorgeous! And there’s enough for the whole ground floor?”

“Yup, probably more than enough.” Lori answers. “We’ll have to wait and see, but _I think_ we’ll be able to do the upstairs hallway with it, too. We need to finalize the wall placements down here to be sure.”

“And I like the finishes for the kitchen. Looks like this whole thing is gonna be awesome. Though, I’m gonna admit, I’m having a hard time picturing what’s goin’ where.”

Mac smiles. “I’m told most people do. I’m starting to get better at it, but still not great.”

They head upstairs to the master bedroom, which is huge. “Can we put in a door from the bathroom back into the hall, so there’s a loop?”

Lori smiles. “Mac already requested that. It’s really not standard. I mean, the whole point of a master is that it’s a private bathroom, not for use by kids or guests. So we compromised, it’s one of the hidden doors in the house. I forgot to mention the others. The second one will be between the two closets of the bedrooms on the main floor. The last one is in the basement between the theater and the storage area.

Jack smiles appreciatively. “Sweeeet. Wait...theater?!”

Mac smiles. “I thought you missed that when I mentioned it in the car. You weren’t nearly excited enough to have heard it.”  
  
“You said ‘media room’, darlin’. Not theater. That’s two different things!”

“Well, it’ll have 12 theater recliners, surround sound and a 10 foot projection screen that we can connect to whatever media source we want: Blu-ray, streaming, anything. You can also hook up a gaming console to it and play.”

Jack feels like he’s going to burst, grinning like a fool, ear to ear. “Man, I love you.” He pulls Mac in and kisses him briefly, but soundly.

Mac returns the smile. “I know.”

Jack rolls his eyes. “Ok Han, how about we keep this tour going.”

Mac chuckles. “If I’m Han, does that make you…”

“Shut up. I heard it as soon as I said it.” All four of them laugh as Jack shakes his head, still smiling wide.

As the tour moves outside, Jack sees an entirely new building not far from the stables. Mac notices his gaze and answers his unspoken question.

“For the ranch hands. I figure once we get the place started up, we’ll need to hire someone to take care of the animals when we’re not here. So the right side is an apartment that’ll be for that full-time person, with its own kitchenette, bedroom, bathroom, TV, and whatnot. The left side has a communal kitchen, bathroom and living area, with two bedrooms for temporary or ‘in training’ ranch hands.”

“Wow, you really thought of everything.”

“Well, I should hope so. I’ve been to your family place in Texas enough times.”

The stables are longer than they looked from the house and it looks like they’re done, other than a coat of paint. There are ten sizable stalls and a tack area at the far end for saddles and gear. Jack looks into the first stall. His mouth drops open in surprise and he quickly moves to the second one and his eyes bug.

“There’s a water tap in _each stall_?”

“I figured it would be a lot easier and faster than lugging buckets of water from a single tap in the tack area. Don’t worry, there’ll still be enough physical labor to do.” Mac laughs. “I wouldn’t want to make it too easy for you. I know how much you love the workout you get taking care of horses.”

Jack grins before wrapping his hand around the back of Mac’s neck to pull him in for another kiss. “You know me so well.”

Mac looks suddenly nervous as he faces Jack. “So...what do you think?”

Jack keeps grinning like a fool. “It’s amazing, Mac. And there’s no way in hell I wanna sell it when it’s done.” He shakes his head. “I still can’t believe you did all this.”

Mac beams, all traces of nerves disappearing. “Ok then. What changes would you like to make?”

“None. Seriously, I love what ya’ll got planned.” Jack turns to include Mitch and Lori in the compliment. “I can’t wait to see it complete.”

It’s Lori’s turn to smile. “If you have no changes to suggest, I can get my crew back here tomorrow. One thing about being shut down for a bit is that it gave us plenty of time to have everything inspected and approved. We even got our last permit approved. So, now it’s just closing up and painting the walls, putting in the floors and the fireplace. Then the tile, cabinets and counters in the kitchen and bathrooms. After that it’s just appliances and furniture. The most time consuming parts will be waiting for the paint to dry between coats and then the countertops. We can’t order them until the cabinets are installed so that the measurements are exact, and they’ll take a couple weeks to be cut and delivered.”

“The cabinets have been ordered, but we put a hold on them like everything else in case things moved, especially in the kitchen.” Mitch adds. “I’ll call them and have them proceed with the original plan. Most of them are standard. There’s only a couple custom pieces so it shouldn’t take too long. That should give Lori’s crew time to close up and paint the kitchen and bathrooms so when the cabinets arrive they can go right in.”

Lori finished it off. “Barring any problems, we should be done in about a month and a half.”

Jack looks stunned. “Seriously? You can get all that done that fast?”

“You’ll be surprised how fast it goes up now that we have all the stuff _inside_ the walls done. I have a crew of six and we work like a well oiled machine. Oh, and Mac, I heard from the fencing company last week. They still have to do the grazing pasture and the corral fencing but, the fence around the perimeter of the property is finished if you want to check it at some point.”

“Yeah. It’ll have to wait for another day off. We don’t have any horses yet and it’s an awfully long walk.”

“How long?” Jack asks.

“Well, it’s 28 acres and the perimeter would change depending on the shape of it. If you take the…”

“No, no, no. I don’t need to hear the math out loud, man, just give me a rough estimate.”

Mac smiles and shakes his head. “A _very_ rough estimate would be four miles. Give or take a mile and a half.”

“Hell, I can pick an afternoon and do that. It’ll give me somethin’ to do for a few hours while you’re at work. Besides, at this point at least, I probably know better what I’m looking for in terms of fencing in horses than you do.”

“Fair enough.” Mac claps his hands. “Ok, I think that’s it.”

Lori looks between the two of them before speaking. “If we’re set with the tour, then I’ll go start making calls to get things fired back up.”

Jack can’t stop grinning. “Let’s do this!”

Lori smiles, nods to them and heads back up to the house, pulling out her phone as she goes.

Mitch turns to Jack extending a hand, which Jack shakes. “It’s been a pleasure meeting you Jack. Can’t wait to work with you to finish putting your house together. At least now that I know you aren’t going to kill me.” He chuckles.

“Yeah, sorry about that earlier. I didn’t realize how little he’d told you. I thought he at least told you I was deployed.” He finishes with a pointed look at Mac.

“Hey, need-to-know is need-to-know, man. It’s a little more relaxed now that you’re back but it hadn’t come up again.”

“Anyway, it’s been a pleasure. I’ll leave you two to wander as you like.” Mitch heads back to his car.

Once he’s sure Mitch is out of earshot, Mac turns to Jack. “There will be more work done once they’re finished. I’ve talked to one of the contractors that does the safehouses for the US Marshals. Once the ‘official’ work is done, they’re going to come in, off the books, and put in a couple more hidden doors and a hidden spiral staircase that goes from the spare room upstairs all the way to the basement. They’ll put in a couple locked and/or hidden cubbies so you don’t have to put a gun in the kitchen junk drawer anymore. And if you want, they’ll also install a reinforced closet in the hidden room in the basement for you to use as an armory rather than putting your larger weapons under your bed. It’ll take them a couple of weeks for the stairs and cubbies. Another week if you want the armory.”

“Geez, hoss. Talk about wish fulfillment! This is like...anything and everything you’ve ever dreamed of having in a house! Secret doors, secret passageways, hidden compartments are every kid’s dream, and the armory and bullet proof glass will make me feel _tons_ better. I don’t even know what to say.”

“Just say you like it.”

“Darlin’, I _love_ it. Thank you.” He says seriously.

Mac beams and sighs contentedly. “Good.” And steps in for a long, deep kiss.

\-------------------------------------------------------

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think in the comments! Kudos are appreciated, too.


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